Google Doodle celebrates Cherokee woodcarver Amanda Crowe

In honor of Native American Heritage Month, this Google video Doodle celebrates Eastern Band Cherokee Indian woodcarver and educator Amanda Crowe, a prolific artist renowned for her expressive animal figures.

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In honor of Native American Heritage Month, this Google video Doodle celebrates Eastern Band Cherokee Indian woodcarver and educator Amanda Crowe, a prolific artist renowned for her expressive animal figures.

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The animated Google Doodle links to a deeper explanation of Crowe’s life and work, introducing the world to the Qualla Boundary where she lived and worked, carrying a carving knife as an 8-year-old schoolgirl.

A separate “Behind the Doodle” video offers more about her legacy.

Led by Doodler Lydia Nichols, the Google Doodle on Cherokee woodcarver Amanda Crowe was created in collaboration with the Qualla Arts & Crafts Mutual as well as William “Bill” H. Crowe, Jr., woodcarver and nephew and former student of Amanda Crowe.

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Though she excelled enough to attend the Art Institute of Chicago, she returned to Cherokee to teach for more than 40 years.

“I asked her how do you carve this bear,” said community tribal council member Boyd Owle in a Google video, “and she said, ‘Cut away everything that don’t look like a bear.”

Crowe died in 2004, but her work has shown in Atlanta and Charlotte, and her spirit persists in the creatures she gave life.

“When she made the bears and stuff, that were dancing, that was her,” said nephew William H. Crowe Jr., also a carver. “That’s the kind of person she was. Lively. ... Whenever she carved, it was with a feeling. It wasn’t scratch a little here, scratch a little there. Get it. Knock it out. The big bears didn’t take long to make because she had the feeling she wanted to do it. It was part of her life.”